Today is August 1, 2025. It feels like July whizzed by, and yet it seems like it was dragging. So many things needed to get done, and when I look back on July, many of them were accomplished, yet so much still needs to be given proper attention. My decision to sell the house and transition into a full-time RV lifestyle was an easy one. The time required to get there relied on factors beyond my control.
The weather over the past few weeks hampered some of those efforts. My inability to stay motivated and focused though, was a self inflicted obstacle. Yesterday, I planned on getting an early start, meaning up by 5 AM, getting Squirty out of her overnight crate to empty her tank, have breakfast, then drive to our storage facility and hook up ‘Lil Red, get it back home, and begin the tedious process of removing the oxidation that had hidden the bright cherry red color under a chalky, dull… Pink.
The early start began fine, but somehow I found myself delaying the task of getting the travel trailer hooked up and transported home. At 9:45, ‘Pinky’ was pulled out in front, and I managed to tangle with the first challenge that needed to get done. As I may have mentioned in prior posts, when we first bought ‘Lil Red’, our first road trip was marred when we discovered the A/C didn’t work when we really needed it to at the first campground we stayed at.
Unknown to us at the time, birds had built a nest inside the rooftop unit, and shorted out the motor. I began checking the unit before all other trips. Then when I discovered a new nest about a year later, I wired up the larger vents in the cover, and the problem was solved. When I winterized the trailer on July 15th, (yes, with Deborah’s health and subsequent passing, winterizing the trailer was not a priority), I heard loud chirping coming from the roof. There was a flurry of bird activity around the vent above the refrigerator. When I got up there, the birds scattered, but there remained loud chirping coming from the inside the vent cover.
My brilliant mind concluded that somehow the birds found a way inside as I could barely see the grass and straw materials coming out one of the very small vent holes. I decided that I wasn’t in the mood to disturb the nest at that moment, and put it off for a few days. Then the prolonged daily thunderstorm activity delayed things further. So that brings us back to yesterday.
Hoping my wiring concept on the A/C would prove effective, I opened the vent. Yes, there was a nest in there with the remnants of egg shells. Once that was removed and the materials that had fallen through the screen leading into the fridge unit were cleared away, my efforts to wire the cover proved fruitless. Not sure how to solve the problem, I decided that I’d regroup and start de-oxidizing.
After washing the outside, I let it dry. Time got away from me. I began using Meguiar’s Compound 57 with my sander/polisher around 6 PM, hoping I could get at least one side completed before 8. I got about 1/3 done, when I smelled that ‘hot wiring’ odor. The housing on the tool was getting too warm for comfort, so I ended the session.
This morning, still thinking I’d have to put ‘Lil Red back to storage, then a visit to Harbor Freight to invest in the stuff I need, then resume the project maybe Saturday. I’ve concluded that while I would love to have everything done… yesterday… realistically, I won’t be able to transition into full timing until at least October, so ‘patience’ and ‘persistence’ must be the traits I must develop… Since, most of the time, I have little of each these days.
But then… I had a change of heart. I didn’t put ‘Lil Red in storage again, I just got what I needed and plowed forward. It took a couple of hours, but I finished one side, but left the door untouched for this ‘Before-After’ contrast picture.
Now I just have to get the rest finished before more bad weather shows it’s ugly head…